RAINS and floods have been causing devastation and damage, especially to crops in Punjab and Sindh, for the last few years consistently. Since water cannot be drained out quickly enough, the loss is much greater than just the standing crops.

Such a situation emerged in 1994-95 when an emergency meeting was held in the Ministry of Food and Agriculture on how to save the farming community.

A strategy was devised to reduce the misery of farmers. At the time, I was heading the technical section of the Pakistan Oilseed Development Board (PODB).

The field staff of provincial agricul-ture departments were asked to reach out to the farmers and encourage them to cultivate canola in standing cotton crops that were fully or partially washed away. The solvent extraction industries were asked to procure the final produce.

The farming community responded positively. Due to this intervention it was for the first time that the import bill of edible oil showed reduction, and considerable foreign exchange was saved. The trend continued for so many years.

Currently, Pakistan is importing a huge quantity of edible oil at the cost of $5 billion to meet the country’s require-ment, and the matter of foreign exchange is much worse than what was the case back in the mid-1990s. This calls for converting a bad situation into a good one.

As soon as the flood water recedes from the field, the farmers should be provided with incentives to go for canola cultivation. The government should immediately start working on it, and arrange hybrid canola seed through the private sector from China, Australia and other countries.

The solvent extraction industry should be taken into confidence with the task to procure the produce at an attractive price. The industry currently imports about a million tonnes of crushing seed to run their plants.

The government should work on this on a war footing, for canola cultivation season is around the corner. The Ministry of National Food Security and Research, and the Oilseed Department may play a leading role in this regard. If one million canola grain is produced, it may yield 0.4 million tonnes of oil, and can save half-a-billion dollars by investing a small amount in the farming community.

Ghulam Idris Khan Ex-MD, Pakistan Oilseed Department,

Ministry of National Food Security and Research Islamabad

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2023